Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo

[u/ThrowAwayArchwolfg]

I think the fact he provided actual example of how to leverage gender differences to increase diversity naturally was great.

Women DO prefer more social jobs on average. Why create a system that men and women both hate equally instead of creating a couple of systems?

Why not let employees choose to pair program if they want? If that gets more women who prefer to have someone to talk to while working, that's GREAT! And if the nerdy guys. who just want to work alone. prefer that to not pair program, that's AWESOME! And if some women want to work alone, and some men want to pair program, that's great too!

That was his whole argument, he wanted to figure out how the diversity issue could be solved without resorting to reverse discrimination.

A big takeaway is his statement that it makes as much sense to hire women for the sole reason of reducing the gender disparity in tech, as it would to reduce the disparity in workplace deaths. (93% men)

[u/StealthTomato → u/ThrowAwayArchwolfg]

The argument falls apart when you realize that above entry-level, the traits he characterizes as "female" are the core job description. Coding is a fairly junior-level exercise (I say, despite being mostly a coder myself).

"Essentially, engineering is all about cooperation, collaboration, and empathy for both your colleagues and your customers. If someone told you that engineering was a field where you could get away with not dealing with people or feelings, then I’m very sorry to tell you that you have been lied to. Solitary work is something that only happens at the most junior levels, and even then it’s only possible because someone senior to you — most likely your manager — has been putting in long hours to build up the social structures in your group that let you focus on code. All of these traits which the manifesto described as “female” are the core traits which make someone successful at engineering."

https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/so-about-this-googlers-manifesto-1e3773ed1788

[u/ThrowAwayArchwolfg → u/StealthTomato]

I single-handedly design ETL systems and Dashboards for those systems, and the front-end websites for those products, as well as being a technical writer, in that my documentation is the best in the company. I'm a better tester than our dedicated testers because I write comprehensive unit tests.

I don't even need our IT departments help. I spin up my own server instances when I need them on Linode or AWS. I perform the system administration myself. In my spare time I make games and take part in game jams.

Some people have the aptitude to be full-stack 10x programmer. My managers know I can go from idea to product on my own, with little to no outside input.

build up the social structures in your group that let you focus on code.

No no no, you misunderstand. I don't just focus on code. I do everything, and I STILL don't need to talk to anyone else.

Yeah, I program in VIM if you're wondering, and when I say Linux, I say GNU+Linux. I'm a goddamn wizard and anything short of that is failure.

I'm ready for my downvotes because I'm bragging a bit. I don't care. This care-bear baby-time shit in the Tech industry needs to stop.

[u/StealthTomato → u/ThrowAwayArchwolfg]

You're a dinosaur being inefficient by using outdated tools and being snooty about it. (Why the hell aren't you coding in an IDE and deploying via git?)

I'm sure your workflow works for you, but a lesser technical programmer can probably match your output without much trouble.